Scribblenauts Unlimited Review

Posted: 12/04/12

The creative hilarity of typing in words and watching them burst to life in crazy, often unpredictable ways delivers potent fun in the Scribblenauts series, making its console debut as part of the Wii U launch line-up. The charming, kid-friendly world of Maxwell and his magic notebook come to life once more in the pintsize wordsmith's most expansive outing yet. The possibilities seem endless, but does Scribblenauts Unlimited pack the creative punch of a "cranky yellow snowman" holding a "mega nuclear flamethrower," or is it as useless and cumbersome as a "giant stinky sparkling green bacon helmet"?

Inheriting a magic notebook from their treasure-hunting grandparents, Maxwell and his sis Lily discover that writing words in the funky tome makes things appear out of thin air. But rather than use it for good, Maxwell gets bored and decides to play a prank on a cranky old man who turns out to be a wizard. Incensed at being duped, the fellow puts a curse on Lily, causing her to slowly turn to stone. In order to save his sibling, Maxwell sets out into the world to help others and collect the Starites needed to reverse the curse. The lighthearted plot setup frames the adventure well, but the storytelling quickly takes a backseat to open-ended experimentation.

Scribblenauts Unlimited breaks down its colorful, world-trotting adventure into smaller, bite-sized stages, each brimming with goofy characters and crazy conundrums. Maxwell's word-flinging jaunt is surprisingly cohesive; you're not simply jumping from one puzzle to the next. Whether you're fiddling around in haunted mansions, cozy suburban neighborhoods, or goblin-infested castle ramparts, each inventive setting feels substantial with numerous tasks to tackle as you roam about. Using your word mojo to fix problems earns you Starites, and finding enough of these shiny treasures unlocks new regions of a Super Mario World-style map hub that lets you hop around to different stages at will.

Motoring through the story provides you with plenty of predefined goals, but Scribblenauts Unlimited's real draw is the almost limitless creativity it affords you. Stringing together ridiculous nouns, verbs, and adjectives lets you craft some hilarious and mind-boggling stuff. You can easily layer additional properties to further define your creations, or combine objects in clever ways for even wilder results. Using these creations to solve puzzles is fun on its own, and when you start experimenting with the game's vast lexicon, you just might find yourself abandoning the quest for long stretches simply to indulge in bouts of free-form tinkering.

Scribblenauts Unlimited adds welcome additions to the familiar word-stringing gameplay. The object editor provides an even bigger toolbox to draw from, giving you an insane level of control over what properties an object possesses and how they interact with different elements in the game world. This also ties into the game’s online functionality. Your meticulously honed creations can now be shared, displayed, and made available for download in your own dedicated in-game shop, and seeing what other players come up is a good source of inspiration. Meanwhile sidekick mode lets couchmates use Wii Remotes to take direct control of these crazy creations to interact with Maxwell and the environments. While limited, the option to play the game with friends locally offers an amusing way to share the silly experiences you’ll cook up.

Given the series' handheld roots, playing Scribblenauts Unlimited with the Wii U Game Pad is a natural fit. Seeing the cartoony world come to life on your TV screen is certainly nice, but you'll inevitably spend most of your time gazing down at the action on the Game Pad and poking out words using the touch screen. The stylus proves a sound means of typing words and controlling Maxwell, though more traditional thumbstick and buttons are available too if you need to focus on jumping.

Puzzles aren’t as difficult or complex as those from past games, but their flexible nature challenges you to be creative in your approach to each obstacle, keeping things from getting stale. Coming up with the most far-out solutions is optional but quite worthwhile; you might summon a pink friendly Cthulhu to scare Manticore-riding invaders from castle walls or hop into a giant flame-throwing robot to keep zombies hordes at bay.

Beyond puzzle solving, simply experimenting with the robust in-game dictionary to see what you can make is great fun, and even seemingly mundane creations can create amusing interactions. Make a zombie lawnmower, for example, will drive around turning everything it touches into zombies too. It's the unpredictable and often ridiculous results that make everything worthwhile and keep you tinkering away to see what you can come up with next.

The jump from pixilated portable screens to the crisper HD format is a smooth transition for the series’ charming art style. The upbeat, cartoony world looks beautiful on both the bigger screen and the Game Pad, and the sharper detail really showcases the animated environments and kooky characters. Even if you play sans TV, the overall refinement of the visual design is a major step-up from its predecessors. The game’s cleverly crafted locations are a pleasure to puzzle through too, with varied themes and referential nods to pop culture.

Rather than making radical changes to the Scribblenauts formula, Unlimited focuses on fine-tuning and expanding upon the elements that make the series unique. The seamless, handsome looking game world is thoughtfully constructed and honestly just a lot of fun to play around in. Serious wordsmiths may bemoan the lighter difficulty and more streamlined puzzle play, but it’s hard to grumble when the simple act of noodling around with your wacky word creations is so blissfully absorbing on its own.

Publishers/DevelopersIf you have questions about the site or a piece of media that you would like included on gametrailers.com, we would love to hear from you. Send us an email at: trailers@gametrailers.com

GamersAny issues with the site? Are there broken links? Is there a trailer you are looking for that you can't find? Do you want to heap praise upon us? Send us an email at: webmaster@gametrailers.com